Abstract: In order to determine the impact of thermo priming on germination of soybean seeds, an experiment was conducted as a completely randomized design with three replications. The factors of studied included different time thermo priming (control, 5 and 10 minutes) through the placing seeds were exposed to oven. The results showed that the effect of thermo priming was significant on germination percentage, seedling dry weight and seedling vigour in P ≤ 0.05. Mean comparison showed that the highest germination percentage (77%), seedling dry weight (1.39 g) and seedling vigour (107.03) were achieved by 10 minutes thermo priming.
Abstract: An experiment was conducted to elucidate the effects of turmeric powder supplementation on egg production performance of old laying hens (80 weeks of age). There were 40 hens of Hysex Brown strain used in the study. They were caged individually, and randomly divided into 4 treatment groups of diet containing 0 (control), 1, 2 and 4 % oven dried turmeric powder for 3 periods of 4 weeks; Egg production (% hen day) and feed intake of the 4 treatment groups at the commencement of the experiment were not significantly different. In addition to egg production performance (% and egg weight), feed and water intakes were measured daily, and cholesterol content of the whole egg was determined. The results indicated that feed intakes of the hen were significantly lowered when 4% turmeric powder supplemented, while there were no significant changes in water intakes. Egg production were significantly increased and maintained at a higher level by turmeric powder supplementation up to 4% compared with the control, while the weight of eggs were not significantly affected. The research markedly demonstrated that supplementation of turmeric powder up to 4% could improve and maintain egg production performance of the old laying hen at a higher level with a lower cholesterol content.
Abstract: Surf is an increasingly popular sport and its performance evaluation is often qualitative. This work aims at using a smartphone to collect and analyze the GPS and inertial sensors data in order to obtain quantitative metrics of the surfing performance. Two approaches are compared for detection of wave rides, computing the number of waves rode in a surfing session, the starting time of each wave and its duration. The first approach is based on computing the velocity from the Global Positioning System (GPS) signal and finding the velocity thresholds that allow identifying the start and end of each wave ride. The second approach adds information from the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) of the smartphone, to the velocity thresholds obtained from the GPS unit, to determine the start and end of each wave ride. The two methods were evaluated using GPS and IMU data from two surfing sessions and validated with similar metrics extracted from video data collected from the beach. The second method, combining GPS and IMU data, was found to be more accurate in determining the number of waves, start time and duration. This paper shows that it is feasible to use smartphones for quantification of performance metrics during surfing. In particular, detection of the waves rode and their duration can be accurately determined using the smartphone GPS and IMU.
Abstract: Distributed applications deployed on LEO satellites
and ground stations require substantial communication between
different members in a constellation to overcome the earth
coverage barriers imposed by GEOs. Applications running on LEO
constellations suffer the earth line-of-sight blockage effect. They
need adequate lab testing before launching to space. We propose
a scalable cloud-based network simulation framework to simulate
problems created by the earth line-of-sight blockage. The framework
utilized cloud IaaS virtual machines to simulate LEO satellites
and ground stations distributed software. A factorial ANOVA
statistical analysis is conducted to measure simulator overhead on
overall communication performance. The results showed a very low
simulator communication overhead. Consequently, the simulation
framework is proposed as a candidate for testing LEO constellations
with distributed software in the lab before space launch.
Abstract: The paper develops a Non-Linear Model Predictive
Control (NMPC) of water quality in Drinking Water Distribution
Systems (DWDS) based on the advanced non-linear quality dynamics
model including disinfections by-products (DBPs). A special attention
is paid to the analysis of an impact of the flow trajectories prescribed
by an upper control level of the recently developed two-time scale
architecture of an integrated quality and quantity control in DWDS.
The new quality controller is to operate within this architecture in the
fast time scale as the lower level quality controller. The controller
performance is validated by a comprehensive simulation study based
on an example case study DWDS.
Abstract: In this paper, we are interested in the problem of
finding similar images in a large database. For this purpose we
propose a new algorithm based on a combination of the 2-D
histogram intersection in the HSV space and statistical moments. The
proposed histogram is based on a 3x3 window and not only on the
intensity of the pixel. This approach overcome the drawback of the
conventional 1-D histogram which is ignoring the spatial distribution
of pixels in the image, while the statistical moments are used to
escape the effects of the discretisation of the color space which is
intrinsic to the use of histograms. We compare the performance of
our new algorithm to various methods of the state of the art and we
show that it has several advantages. It is fast, consumes little memory
and requires no learning. To validate our results, we apply this
algorithm to search for similar images in different image databases.
Abstract: In the immunologic sense, clinical infection is a state
of failure of the immune system to combat the pathogenic weapon of
the bacteria invading the host. A motile gram negative vibroid
organism associated with marked mono and poly nuclear cell
responses was traced during the examination of a clinical material
from an infected common carp Cyprinus carpio. On primary plate
culture, growth was shown to be pure, dense population of an
Aeromonas-like colony morphotype. The pure isolate was found to
be; Aerobic, facultatively anaerobic, non-halophilic, grew at 0C, and
37C, oxidase positive utilizes glucose through fermentative pathway,
resist 0/129 and novobiocin, produces alanine and lysine
decarboxylases but non-producing ornithine dehydrolases. Tests for
the in vitro determinants of pathogenicity has shown to be; Betahaemolytic
onto blood agar, gelatinase, casienase and amylase
producer. Three in vivo determinants of pathogenicity were tested as,
the lethal dose fifty, the pathogenesis and pathogenicity. It was
evident that 0.1 milliliter of the causal bacterial cell suspension of a
density 1 x 107 CFU/ml injected intramuscularly into an average of
100gms fish toke five days incubation period, then at the day six
morbidity and mortality were initiated. LD50 was recorded at the day
12 post-infection. Use of an LD50 doses to study the pathogenicity,
reveals mononuclear and polynuclear cell responses, on examining
the stained direct films of the clinical materials from the
experimentally infected fish. Re-isolation tests confirm that the reisolant
is same. The course of the infection in natural case was shown
manifestation of; skin ulceration, haemorrhage and descaling. On
evisceration, the internal organs were shown; congestion in the
intestines, spleen and, air sacs. The induced infection showed a
milder form of these manifestations. The grading of the virulence of
this organism was virulent causing chronic course of infections as
indicated from the pathogenesis and pathogenicity studies. Thus the
infectious bacteria were consistent with Aeromonas hydrophila, and
the infection was chronic.
Abstract: Biomass briquette gasification is regarded as a
promising route for efficient briquette use in energy generation, fuels
and other useful chemicals. However, previous research has been
focused on briquette gasification in fixed bed gasifiers such as
updraft and downdraft gasifiers. Fluidised bed gasifier has the
potential to be effectively sized to medium or large scale. This study
investigated the use of fuel briquettes produced from blends of rice
husks and corn cobs biomass, in a bubbling fluidised bed gasifier.
The study adopted a combination of numerical equations and Aspen
Plus simulation software, to predict the product gas (syngas)
composition base on briquette density and biomass composition
(blend ratio of rice husks to corn cobs). The Aspen Plus model was
based on an experimentally validated model from the literature. The
results based on a briquette size 32 mm diameter and relaxed density
range of 500 to 650kg/m3, indicated that fluidisation air required in
the gasifier increased with increase in briquette density, and the
fluidisation air showed to be the controlling factor compared with the
actual air required for gasification of the biomass briquettes. The
mass flowrate of CO2 in the predicted syngas composition increased
with an increase in air flow, in the gasifier, while CO decreased and
H2 was almost constant. The ratio of H2 to CO for various blends of
rice husks and corn cobs did not significantly change at the designed
process air, but a significant difference of 1.0 was observed between
10/90 and 90/10 % blend of rice husks and corn cobs.
Abstract: It is the worldwide problem that the recycled PVB is
not recycled and it is wildly stored in landfills. However, PVB has
similar chemical properties such as PVC. Moreover, both of these
polymers are plasticized. Therefore, the study of thermal properties
of plasticized PVC and the recycled PVB obtained by recycling of
windshields is carried out. This work has done in order to find nondegradable
processing conditions applicable for both polymers.
Tested PVC contained 38% of plasticizer diisononyl phthalate
(DINP) and PVB was plasticized with 28% of triethylene glycol,
bis(2-ethylhexanoate) (3GO). The thermal and thermo-oxidative
decomposition of both vinyl polymers are compared by calorimetric
analysis and by tensile strength analysis.
Abstract: Whey is the lactose rich by-product of the dairy
industry, having good amount of nutrient reservoir. Most abundant
nutrients are lactose, soluble proteins, lipids and mineral salts.
Disposing of whey by most of milk plants which do not have proper
pre-treatment system is the major issue. As a result of which, there
can be significant loss of potential food and energy source. Thus,
whey has been explored as the substrate for the synthesis of different
value added products such as enzymes. β-galactosidase is one of the
important enzymes and has become the major focus of research due
to its ability to catalyze both hydrolytic as well as
transgalactosylation reaction simultaneously. The enzyme is widely
used in dairy industry as it catalyzes the transformation of lactose to
glucose and galactose, making it suitable for the lactose intolerant
people. The enzyme is intracellular in both bacteria and yeast,
whereas for molds, it has an extracellular location. The present work
was carried to utilize the whey for the production of β-galactosidase
enzyme using both yeast and fungal cultures. The yeast isolate
Kluyveromyces marxianus WIG2 and various fungal strains have
been used in the present study. Different disruption techniques have
also been investigated for the extraction of the enzyme produced
intracellularly from yeast cells. Among the different methods tested
for the disruption of yeast cells, SDS-chloroform showed the
maximum β-galactosidase activity. In case of the tested fungal
cultures, Aureobasidium pullulans NCIM 1050 was observed to be
the maximum extracellular enzyme producer.
Abstract: In this study, the pedestrian simulation VISWALK
integration and application platform ant algorithms written program
made to construct a renovation engineering schedule planning mode.
The use of simulation analysis platform construction site when the user
running the simulation, after calculating the user walks in the case of
construction delays, the ant algorithm to find out the minimum delay
time schedule plan, and add volume and unit area deactivated loss of
business computing, and finally to the owners and users of two
different positions cut considerations pick out the best schedule
planning. To assess and validate its effectiveness, this study
constructed the model imported floor of a shopping mall floor
renovation engineering cases. Verify that the case can be found from
the mode of the proposed project schedule planning program can
effectively reduce the delay time and the user's walking mall loss of
business, the impact of the operation on the renovation engineering
facilities in the building to a minimum.
Abstract: Fast speed drives for Permanent Magnet Synchronous
Motor (PMSM) is a crucial performance for the electric traction
systems. In this paper, PMSM is derived with a Model-based
Predictive Control (MPC) technique. Fast speed tracking is achieved
through optimization of the DC source utilization using MPC. The
technique is based on predicting the optimum voltage vector applied
to the driver. Control technique is investigated by comparing to the
cascaded PI control based on Space Vector Pulse Width Modulation
(SVPWM). MPC and SVPWM-based FOC are implemented with the
TMS320F2812 DSP and its power driver circuits. The designed MPC
for a PMSM drive is experimentally validated on a laboratory test
bench. The performances are compared with those obtained by a
conventional PI-based system in order to highlight the improvements,
especially regarding speed tracking response.
Abstract: Because blueberries are worldwide recognized as a
good source of beneficial components, their consumption has
increased in the past decades, and so have the scientific works about
their properties. Hence, this work was undertaken to evaluate the
effect of some production and conservation factors on the properties
of blueberries from cultivar Bluecrop. The physical and chemical
analyses were done according to established methodologies and then
all data was treated using software SPSS for assessment of the
possible differences among the factors investigated and/or the
correlations between the variables at study. The results showed that
location of production influenced some of the berries properties
(caliber, sugars, antioxidant activity, color and texture) and that the
age of the bushes was correlated with moisture, sugars and acidity, as
well as lightness. On the other hand, altitude of the farm only was
correlated to sugar content. With regards to conservation, it
influenced only anthocyanins content and DPPH antioxidant activity.
Finally, the type of extract and the order of extraction had a
pronounced influence on all the phenolic properties evaluated.
Abstract: Among various active filters, shunt active filter is a
viable solution for reactive power and harmonics compensation. In
this paper, the SRF plan is used to generate current reference for
compensation and conventional PI controllers were used as the
controller to compensate the reactive power. The design of the closed
loop controllers is reserved simple by modeling them as first order
systems. Computationally uncomplicated and efficient SVM system
is used in the present work for better utilization of dc bus voltage.
The rating of shunt active filter has been finalized based on the
reactive power demand of the selected reactive load. The proposed
control and SVM technique are validated by simulating in MATLAB
software.
Abstract: We present a gas-liquid microfluidic system as a
reactor to obtain magnetite nanoparticles with an excellent degree of
control regarding their crystalline phase, shape and size. Several
types of microflow approaches were selected to prevent nanomaterial
aggregation and to promote homogenous size distribution. The
selected reactor consists of a mixer stage aided by ultrasound waves
and a reaction stage using a N2-liquid segmented flow to prevent
magnetite oxidation to non-magnetic phases. A milli-fluidic reactor
was developed to increase the production rate where a magnetite
throughput close to 450 mg/h in a continuous fashion was obtained.
Abstract: Microbes have been used to solve environmental
problems for many years. The role of microorganism to sequester,
precipitate or alter the oxidation state of various heavy metals has
been extensively studied. Treatment using microorganism interacts
with toxic metal are very diverse. The purpose of this research is to
remove the mercury using Pseudomonas putida (P. putida), pure
culture ATTC 49128 at optimum growth parameters such as
techniques of culture, acclimatization time and speed of incubator
shaker. Thus, in this study, the optimum growth parameters of P.
putida were obtained to achieve the maximum of mercury removal.
Based on the optimum parameters of P. putida for specific growth
rate, the removal of two different mercury concentration, 1 ppm and
4 ppm were studied. From mercury nitrate solution, a mercuryresistant
bacterial strain which is able to reduce from ionic mercury
to metallic mercury was used to reduce ionic mercury. The overall
levels of mercury removal in this study were between 80% and 89%.
The information obtained in this study is of fundamental for
understanding of the survival of P. putida ATTC 49128 in mercury
solution. Thus, microbial mercury removal is a potential
bioremediation for wastewater especially in petrochemical industries
in Malaysia.
Abstract: Some plants of genus Schinus have been used in the
folk medicine as topical antiseptic, digestive, purgative, diuretic,
analgesic or antidepressant, and also for respiratory and urinary
infections. Chemical composition of essential oils of S. molle and S.
terebinthifolius had been evaluated and presented high variability
according with the part of the plant studied and with the geographic
and climatic regions. The pharmacological properties, namely
antimicrobial, anti-tumoural and anti-inflammatory activities are
conditioned by chemical composition of essential oils. Taking into
account the difficulty to infer the pharmacological properties of
Schinus essential oils without hard experimental approach, this work
will focus on the development of a decision support system, in terms
of its knowledge representation and reasoning procedures, under a
formal framework based on Logic Programming, complemented with
an approach to computing centered on Artificial Neural Networks
and the respective Degree-of-Confidence that one has on such an
occurrence.
Abstract: Auditory hallucinations among the most invalidating
and distressing experiences reported by patients diagnosed with
schizophrenia, leading to feelings of powerlessness and helplessness
towards their illness. In more severe cases, these auditory
hallucinations can take the form of commanding voices, which are
often related to high suicidality rates in these patients. Several
authors propose that the meanings attributed to the hallucinatory
experience, rather than characteristics like form and content, can be
determinant in patients’ reactions to hallucinatory activity,
particularly in the case of voice-hearing experiences. In this study, 48
patients diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia presenting auditory
hallucinations were studied. Multiple regression analyses were
computed to study the influence of several developmental aspects,
such as family and social dynamics, bullying, depression, and sociocognitive
variables on the auditory hallucinations, on patients’
attributions and relationships with their voices, and on the resulting
invalidation of hallucinatory experience. Overall, results showed how
relationships with voices can mirror several aspects of interpersonal
relationship with others, and how self-schemas, depression and actual
social relationships help shaping the voice-hearing experience. Early
experiences of victimization and submission help predict the
attributions of omnipotence of the voices, and increased hostility
from parents seems to increase the malevolence of the voices,
suggesting that socio-cognitive factors can significantly contribute to
the etiology and maintenance of auditory hallucinations. The
understanding of the characteristics of auditory hallucinations and the
relationships patients established with their voices can allow the
development of more promising therapeutic interventions that can be
more effective in decreasing invalidation caused by this devastating
mental illness.
Abstract: Software fault prediction models are created by using
the source code, processed metrics from the same or previous version
of code and related fault data. Some company do not store and keep
track of all artifacts which are required for software fault prediction.
To construct fault prediction model for such company, the training
data from the other projects can be one potential solution. Earlier we
predicted the fault the less cost it requires to correct. The training
data consists of metrics data and related fault data at function/module
level. This paper investigates fault predictions at early stage using the
cross-project data focusing on the design metrics. In this study,
empirical analysis is carried out to validate design metrics for cross
project fault prediction. The machine learning techniques used for
evaluation is Naïve Bayes. The design phase metrics of other projects
can be used as initial guideline for the projects where no previous
fault data is available. We analyze seven datasets from NASA
Metrics Data Program which offer design as well as code metrics.
Overall, the results of cross project is comparable to the within
company data learning.
Abstract: This paper presents the design and characterization of
analog readout interface circuits for ion sensitive field effect
transistor (ISFET) and ion selective electrode (ISE) based sensor.
These interface circuits are implemented using MIMOS’s 0.35um
CMOS technology and experimentally characterized under 24-leads
QFN package. The characterization evaluates the circuit’s
functionality, output sensitivity and output linearity. Commercial
sensors for both ISFET and ISE are employed together with glass
reference electrode during testing. The test result shows that the
designed interface circuits manage to readout signals produced by
both sensors with measured sensitivity of ISFET and ISE sensor are
54mV/pH and 62mV/decade, respectively. The characterized output
linearity for both circuits achieves above 0.999 Rsquare. The readout
also has demonstrated reliable operation by passing all qualifications
in reliability test plan.